- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Spear with ebony point set into a long wooden shaft, with the junction covered by a double hide sheath [RTS 12/7/2005].
- Long description
- Spear consisting of an narrow ebony point with a polished, varicoloured dark reddish brown (Pantone 469C) and dark brown surface (Pantone Black 4C). The base of this rests against a long narrow generally round sectioned shaft that tapers to the butt end, made from wood that has been stained an orangey brown colour (Pantone 730C) and highly polished. The junction between the two elements has been covered with a double sheath made from cut sections of an animal tail, shrunken in place over the top of the shaft and the base of the point. The inner sheath is dark brown and extends further up the base of the point (Pantone 7533C). It is very worn, but has traces of rows of lightly impressed marks running around the circumference, made using a tool with lentoid-shaped leading edge. A second sheath has been fitted on top of this, in a lighter orangey brown hide (Pantone 729C). This has similar decoration, which has also worn off in some areas. The spear is complete, but has some insect damage near the shaft butt; it has a weight of 702.2 grams. It has a total length of 2239 mm, of which the point measures 518 mm to the top of the sheath, while the inner sheath is 185 mm long, and the outer sheath has a length of 140 mm. The point has a maximum diameter of 26 by 25 mm; the sheath has a maximum diameter of 30.7 mm, and the shaft has a diameter of 21.3 by 20.8 mm [RTS 12/7/2005].
- Geographical reference
- Cultural groups
- Nuer
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1936
- Date collected
- 1935 - 1936
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1936
- Materials and processes
- Material Ebony Wood Plant, Material Wood Plant, Material Animal Tail, Process Carved, Process Polished, Process Covered, Process Tooled, Process Socketed, Process Stained, Process Decorated
- Dimensions
- Diameter: max 31 mm, Length: max 2239 mm, Length: max 518 mm point to top of sheath, Diameter: max 21 mm shaft, Weight 702.2 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1936.10.3
- Research and responses
For an essay on the variety and cultural significance of spears in South Sudan, particularly among the Dinka and Nuer, see ‘“Spears” that are not Spears’, by Jok Madut Jok, in Pieces of a Nation: South Sudanese Heritage and Museum Collections, edited by Zoe Cormack and Cherry Leonardi (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2021), pp. 110–114.
Evans-Pritchard did his fieldwork amongst the Nuer in four expeditions, which took place in 1930, 1931, 1935 and 1936. This object was probably collected in 1935 or 1936, when he held a research fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust (see E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer).
Evans-Pritchard, writing in 1940, said of the Nuer: 'Till recently they possessed very few iron spears, cherished as heirlooms, but used instead the straightened horns of antelope and buck, ebony wood, and the rib-bones of giraffe, all of which are still used to-day, though almost entirely in dances ...’ (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, p. 86). Howell gives the Nuer term for these spears as giit, while the iron headed spears were known as mur. He states that the giit were regarded 'with considerable amusement' by younger Nuer, but that a few were retained as they were 'considered particularly effective in war, and the Nuer hope they may one day be able to use them ... although it required greater skill and strength to inflict a wound with a giit, the wounds once inflicted are more severe'. He goes on to describe the method of hafting them: 'The giit ... is fixed at the joint with an unsewn leather collar made from the tail skin of an ox. This is soaked and stretched round the haft, where it shrinks as it dries'. (P.P. Howell, 1947, "On the Value of Iron Among the Nuer", Man 47, p. 132-3). [RTS 3/3/2004].
Search terms: Weapon, Spear, Spear-head